Game of Thrones cosplay

We have previously put up a Daenerys Targaryen cosplay tutorial that Justine put together, but she focused on only the dress – she is our seamstress, after all. I’m more of a cosplay crafter, so I made the belt myself, and even added some detailing to the front flaps on the dress by hand! I’m here today to let you know how to pull together the final piece of this outfit. Read on for how I made my Daenerys Targaryen belt.

In the time since that previous post went up, I’ve got a new Dany outfit, which we’ll be sharing with you one day soon. Before that, though, I wanted to let you know how the belt for this one came together. Don’t know what I’m talking about? Well, here’s a photo of the outfit we’ve recreated:

And here’s the end product that Justine and I created between her sewing skills and my crafting:

As you can see, Dany has this crazy belt that is clearly made of metal and probably hand-forged specifically for her. I obviously did not have the time (or skills or money) to create it out of that kind of material, so I came up with another solution…. hot glue!

Right now I feel like I should provide a little sidenote on how amazing hot glue is for cosplay purposes. I seriously believe you can use it for ANYTHING and I have yet to be proven wrong. You can glue things together, create things from scratch, or make touch-ups as needed. If you’re a cosplayer who has not yet discovered hot glue for quick fixes, I highly recommend trying it out.

But back to the belt…

This was my first attempt at making the belt, and I was absolutely shocked and a little impressed that it worked. Here are the steps I followed:

I printed a pattern from the internet. Kris actually did it for me, in a couple different sizes so I could measure against myself and figure out what would work best. I’m not sure exactly which one she printed but this one by Kukuzilla on Deviantart looks great. Resize it to whatever you think will work – it doesn’t matter how clear the photo is since it’s just a guide. Make sure it will reach mostly around your waist and that the ends won’t overlap at the back.

I taped the pattern sheets together so everything was properly lined up, then laid it under a piece of parchment paper.

I used my hot glue gun to trace the entire pattern. It was large, so my hand was definitely sore by the end! I made sure to put lots of glue along the attachment area at the back since I planned to just lace it up and wanted to make sure it was extra sturdy.

I let the belt sit and dry for a bit, just to make sure the glue was nice and hard.

After a few minutes, I peeled the belt off of the paper and proceeded to clean it up a little bit (you know, get rid of the little hot glue wisps that accompany everything you do with the glue gun).

I let the belt harden and set overnight, just in case there was any lingering hot glue there.

I used gold spray paint on the side of the belt that had been on the parchment paper. This flat side seemed to provide a bit of a better texture for the look I wanted. I did a few coats and let it dry well.

I cut some gold ribbon to lace up the belt in the back, just looping through gaps corset-style. This gets laced and unlaced every time I put it on and take it off.

And that’s it! This belt is actually very sturdy and I’ve never been worried about it pulling or breaking.

Honestly, this project ended up being MUCH easier than I had anticipated. I was surprised and delighted when the first attempt went so well. The only issue I have had is that the paint tends to flake with wear, since the belt is curved around my waist. There is probably a better type paint I could have used (I’m still learning about the best materials for different cosplay uses), but respraying it before each wearing seems to be working just fine. I have had success on another hot glue paint project by using a primer underneath too, so that might be a possible solution.

Hopefully this all makes sense! Please let me know if you have any other questions about making this Daenerys Targaryen belt – it honestly is just as simple as it sounds. If I can do it, you can do it too.

Last weekend Justine and I visited Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo, which is the 2nd largest comic convention in Canada, taking place in our home province of Alberta. The experience was not quite the same without Kris there to complete our team, but we still managed to have an absolute blast. Cosplay, quality friend time, and celebrity sightings were the highlights of the weekend, and those will all feature prominently in this Calgary Expo 2016 recap.

Instead of reviewing the expo this year, I decided it might be a little more fun to give you some insight on the random adventures and funny moments that we had throughout the course of the weekend. So while this is by no means a full weekend recap, it offers a little more personal insight than a review might.

Cosplay

Of course one of our favourite parts of any Expo weekend is dressing in costume the whole time, and last weekend was no exception. We hit a solid range of fanbases with our cosplays over the three days. On Friday, we dressed as Disney princesses. On Saturday, we reunited our Game of Thrones cosplay crew. And on Sunday, we debuted our new DC Bombshells outfits.

It’s always fun to pretend to be someone else for a day… or in our case, 3 other people on 3 consecutive days. Being a Disney princess is always a blast; it’s exceptionally difficult to not spend the day smiling at everyone. Our Game of Thrones group is always a hit (largely due to our friend Danny who makes for an excellent Joffrey… who everyone just loves to hate). The DC Bombshells outfits were very cute and actually quite comfortable, even if they are a little more revealing than my costumes usually tend to be.

More photos from all of these are still to come, so consider this your sneak peek!

Celebrity Interactions

Over the course of this expo weekend, Justine and I had more celebrity interactions than we’ve ever had at a comic convention in the past. These stories are unique memories that we get to take home with us; I’m quite sure no one else in attendance at the event has the same collection as we do.

John Barrowman

On the day we were dressed as Belle and Briar Rose respectively, Justine and I were heading off the grounds to take some downtime before the afterparty. As we were walking to the car, a golf cart whizzed past us and we heard someone exclaim “Hey Belle!”. We turned around and there was John Barrowman perched on the back of a golf cart, waving at us. We both waved awkwardly and then laughed so hard as his cart pulled away.

A photo posted by My Fangirl Life (@myfangirllifeblog) on Apr 29, 2016 at 5:31pm PDT

Joey Fatone

As you may already know from this blog, we are huge boyband fangirls. Nowadays this extends to One Direction specifically, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t had love for many others over the years. One such band is *NSYNC, so how could we pass up the opportunity to go to an afterparty for the Calgary Expo 2016 hosted by none other than Joey Fatone? We couldn’t. That’s the answer. So we went, saw him close the show, and then asked for this selfie. He was totally chill and happy to oblige.

A photo posted by My Fangirl Life (@myfangirllifeblog) on Apr 29, 2016 at 10:30pm PDT

Tom Felton

This was the most exciting interaction for us as giant Harry Potter fans. It helps that Tom Felton is also young and gorgeous, of course. We were out at the hotel bar one evening visiting with a friend and expected we might glimpse a few celebrities since we knew this was the hotel the guests were staying at. Earlier in the evening, John Barrowman came into the entrance of the lounge, then before long turned around and headed elsewhere. Tom Payne from the Walking Dead sat down at the table next to us for about 30 seconds, then headed out right away. That had been the extent of the excitement when we decided to head elsewhere.

Our group was actually in the lobby trying to rally everyone while Justine popped back into the bar to say goodbye to the people who were staying. It wasn’t long before I got a text from her saying that Tom Felton was in the lounge.

With this news I headed back inside, delighted that I’d have the opportunity to stare at the back of Tom Felton’s head or something like that (this is the extent of what we got to see of Lana Parrilla last year, and boy was the back of her head cute). When I arrived, I found Justine and we stared lovingly over to the corner of the bar where he was seated. To our delight, he was actually hanging out and chatting with a few fans. One of our friends who planned on talking to him came and brought us over too.

Justine and I both struggled with the decision of whether we wanted to go meet him. This was a different situation from Joey Fatone the night before; Joey had been brought in to host the afterparty which means that I felt much more ok about interacting with him. Tom had come down to enjoy a casual drink in the evening during his spare time. But we looked over, realized he wasn’t being mobbed and was more just chatting with people, thought about how he was our #1 person at this year’s expo to meet, and decided to go for it.

Our friend Aaron from Manapop, who had brought us over, said hello first and asked if Tom would do him a favour and take a picture with us two lovely ladies.

Why, of course! That’s free for a hug and a kiss!

Aaron then tried to run at him while Tom jokingly avoided his advances. Tom then turned to Justine, asked her name and shook her hand while repeating it, then did the same for me. We practically died. Tom Felton knew our names for like 5 seconds, and definitely acted like he was trying to remember them ?￰ﾟﾘﾍ?￰ﾟﾘﾭ!! Next he grabbed Justine’s phone, asked the two of us to come right in close to him, and took a selfie. This was seriously the highlight of the weekend.

A photo posted by My Fangirl Life (@myfangirllifeblog) on Apr 30, 2016 at 11:08pm PDT

Random Photo Sessions

Typically one of our favourite parts of attending an expo (aside from the cosplay itself) is having people take pictures of us in our costumes. When someone comes up to ask for a shot, it is just total reassurance that you did a good job. On Disney princess day, we had so many little girls who were excited to meet us – possibly because they believed we were the real thing – as well as many parents that wanted photos to make their kids exceedingly jealous.

Walking around with our Game of Thrones group is especially fun. Because everyone looks so great and put so much effort into these costumes, we typically can get “stuck” in central locations with people just lining up to take photos of us all. There was one point on Saturday that we were about 30 feet from the coffee cart when we decided we wanted to go there… it took about 45 minutes to actually make our way to the line since person after person just kept coming up with cameras. We actually had several people say we should do event appearances. The event planner in me is considering cool things to do with this.

Our DC Bombshell outfits were a little more low key; we weren’t stopped for photos near as often as either of the other days. This was actually kind of a nice thing for Expo Sunday.

We did a few fun photo sessions by ourselves, and were shot by a few amazing photographers. I can’t wait to see how the photos come out looking – we’ll be sure to share those when they arrive!

Other Funny/Awesome Moments

At one point on Game of Thrones day, we were trying to escape a conversation and all started saying “oh, right… we have to get to this panel right away”, then walked off in the direction of the room. Once we were out of sight, we stopped and continued just hanging out and having our picture taken. This was all fine and good until we were caught red-handed NOT at the panel… “Oh, they closed the door on us”.

We met this great Kylo Ren. Seriously. He’s so great that I couldn’t NOT mention it here. He told me that we were both princesses as we took the photo ?

A photo posted by My Fangirl Life (@myfangirllifeblog) on Apr 29, 2016 at 9:06pm PDT

At one point when I was walking around with Danny in my DC Bombshell Black Canary, a guy came up and asked if he could get a photo with Danny (who was dressed in his Game of Thrones best as Joffrey again). Danny agreed and the guy turned to me and was like “do you happen to have a phone? I usually get people to take pictures and send them to me”. I looked at him in disgust, because obviously if you want a picture you should have a device to take it on. Also, as mentioned, my DC Bombshell outfit was a biiiiiit scandalous and I didn’t really want to give this guy the opportunity to connect with me via text message or anything like that. Luckily Danny stepped in with his phone and tried to push the guy towards just giving his Instagram handle. I took the picture, though I’m honestly not sure if Danny got around to sending it over. Seriously, who does this????

On the final day of the Expo, we lost our friend Cole for awhile. Which is especially hilarious because he is totally the baby of the group. He gave Justine his phone in the morning for safekeeping, which also included all his wallet contents, so he was pretty helpless without it. He then wandered off. Justine headed to a panel, and Danny and I spent the next hour or so walking around together sort of looking for Cole, but mostly just wandering. It wasn’t until much later that Justine and I tracked Cole down and he returned to us, scared of the ordeal he had just gone through. He promised to stick with the group or take his phone when he left from then on.

Hope you enjoyed my recap of Calgary Expo 2016! Did you attend this year? What are your favourite stories from a comic convention? Let us know in the comments!

Welcome to the next in what’s becoming a long line of Game of Thrones Cosplay How-Tos! There’s just something about the ladies of Westeros that we keep coming back to, so today I’m here with a Margaery Tyrell Cosplay Tutorial. If you missed the first three installments you can find them here: Justine as Margaery,Kris as Sansa and KG as Dany.

Today I’ll detail my biggest project yet. After making the first three dresses I was ready for a challenge. I wasn’t quite ready to make a Disney Princess ball gown (though it’s totally still on my cosplay wish list) but I wanted something that would be more difficult. It was time I tackled Margaery’s wedding dress from her wedding to Joffrey in Season 3. The dress itself isn’t particularly difficult but there is so much detailing that it certainly qualified as a challenge!

Let’s start at the beginning. Here’s the dress I was about to tackle:

Definitely a bit more intense than my previous one, right!?! Before I begin, I’d like to say that this is easier than you think it’ll be and it’s totally possible to do cheaply. The entire outfit can’t have cost me more than $100.

Early on I decided I wanted to make my dress a bit more metallic in colour. I looked at a number of different cosplay versions online and my favourites were always the ones that had gold, silver and/or bronze throughout. I like the white and grey of Margaery’s dress but I wanted a bit more pop. Also, I’ve seen versions where cosplayers have added green for the vines or leaves. I’m not a fan of this; I instead kept things neutral with metallic accents.

Like all cosplays, this started with a trip to the fabric store. I think Kris, KG and I have pretty good luck when it comes to finding fabric, but this might be our biggest steal yet. We spent hours looking at fabrics in the upholstery section. There were a number we liked but they were all so expensive. I wasn’t ready to pay $20+/m…so we kept looking. Eventually this lead us to the discount section. There was one that was almost perfect, except under certain light it appeared a little more yellow than white. But it was $8/m and then HALF OFF! A large black stain ran down the edge of the fabric (explaining why it was so cheap), but I figured this would be easy enough to work around. I decided to buy it. At this point I wanted to do a test run of the dress with some cheap fabric; I didn’t have a full pattern and this would be the first time I’d made a full train. I thought this fabric would be perfect for that, and if it happened to work out I’d consider using it for the rest.

The next step was crafting my pattern. I realized the top of Margaery’s dress is very similar to the top of Dany’s Qarth dress (which I had conveniently just made!) or at least it was close enough that I could use is pattern with a few adjustments. Top: Check. Then I added some extra pattern paper I had lying around and drafted the skirt. I attempted to make it quite fitted throughout the torso but then have a big skirt. The trickiest part was the train. I made it quite large from the start, knowing it’d be easy enough to shorten. As this was all coming together I decided this was going to be my dress. I was nailing the test run!

Soon it was just finishing touches: I tightened up the body a bit and lowered the neckline in typical Margaery fashion. I made the back lower than the original pattern. I also had to make the train shorter and thinner when I realized I was making a wedding dress to wear to a Con, not to walk down the aisle in. I struggled figuring out how I was going to get in and out of the dress. In the end I decided to put a zipper up one of the sides and some snaps to secure the top around my neck.

Next came the vines. We found some twisted thread stuff (I’m not entirely sure how I’d describe it) on sale and I grabbed 4m of 4 different colours (dark brown, light brown, cream and grey). This was probably to worst part of the entire experience. For each vine I took two colours, twisted, and sewed them together. I then pined the twists onto the dress in sections to make sure each vine was in the correct place. Next I hand sewed them to the dress. This was very time consuming (I think I watched the entirety of The Mindy Project just doing this). Hand sewing is the worst – I’d much rather be at my sewing machine. Eventually I had used all 16m. The only section where I didn’t use dual-colored twists was the strands that went down the skirt in the back.

I say the vines were the most time consuming, but I probably spent more time making roses. The main difference is that I actually came to enjoy making roses, it was bound to happen when I had to make 270 of them. Again I took a trip to the fabric store and bought an abundance of grey and white fabric from the discount section. I think in the end I had 3 different greys, 3 whites, excess fabric from KG’s Dany skirt, excess fabric from my Belle shirt and excess fabric from this dress. Each fabric was slightly different in colour & texture and when put together it was an excellent mix.

So how did I make these roses? First I watched a couple of youtube videos and then I tried different strategies for a few hours until I finally got it right. It definitely took a while to get the correct ‘rose’ shape. When I started I was making them too nice. As it turns out, they don’t need to be perfect… You want them big, and you want each one to have some character. I made a handful before Kris, KG and I took our road trip to the Yukon this summer and when KG suggested I bring my rose making supplies with me I jumped on it! I sat in the back of the car and sewed roses for hours on our 21 hour drive there and 21 hour drive back. By the time we got home I had used all of the fabric I brought with me. At the end I was probably making about a rose a minute! You don’t need to know the amount of times I stabbed myself with the needle or how sore my hands were by the time it was all over.

When I was done I had 270 fabric roses that now needed to be attached to my dress!

I started by hand sewing a few roses down the back of the skirt along the vines. I quickly realized that the smaller roses worked best for this. I also realized shortly after I started that it would look better if I started attaching roses right at the top of the skirt; start with a few at the top and then have them increase in abundance as I worked my way down.

Next came the skirt. I started at the edge of the skirt in the middle and then worked out and up. The triangle took shape early on. It was fun to pull in the different colours and make a design full of different textures and colours. There were times where I struggled with too much grey or to much white in one area. In the end all of the roses made a large triangle on the back of the dress.

This is where the fun begins. It was at this stage that I discovered my hot glue gun. Each rose was individually hand sewn on, BUT I then went back and reinforced a number of them with hot glue. I also took this time to fill in any gaps in the skirt with some extra roses. I was also sure to glue each of the roses along the edge onto the skirt to more thoroughly secure them. 270 roses were attached, and goodness with that the dress became a lot heavier!

Next came the leaves. I went to Michael’s and bought a number of cheap bouquets of fake flowers that had nice leaves. I wasn’t too picky except they had to be the size I wanted. I don’t know how best to describe the size but they were rather ‘normal’ in size, not too big or too small. On this trip I also bought some gold, silver, and bronze paint. Back home I separated each of the leaves from the the bouquets and placed them on a garbage bag. Then I started painting! I split the leaves quite equally between the three colours. After one side dried I flipped them and painted the other side. This whole process was hardest with the silver paint; a few more extra coats were needed on these leaves. After the paint had dried I added a layer of sealant to both sides.

Once the leaves had dried it was time to attach them. I bought fabric glue for this BUT it was very early into this process that I realized hot glue was the way to go. The fabric glue wasn’t drying instantly and that’s what I wanted. In attaching the leaves I first laid them out a few sections at a time. I don’t think you can really go wrong as long as there are some bunches of different colours and textures. I did look at the original dress and a few other cosplays that I had stumbled upon for ideas but mostly I just started attaching.

Down the vines in the front I chose to do a couple clusters of two or three leaves and then the odd one leaf in smaller areas. On the top most of the leaves are attached to the outer vines. At the bottom of the bodice before the skirt starts there are two clusters of leaves on the hips. I then attached a number of leaves down the vines on the front of the skirt. On the back I attached a number of leaves to the vines on the bodice and then even more going down the skirt. My words of advice are to start and then just go with the flow! With hot glue it’s just a large craft project.

Next was attaching thorns to the dress. I bought 100 pointed silver metallic beads on eBay for $5! It was a steal. Each of these was hand sewn onto the dress. It took me a few tries to figure out how I wanted the spacing… I had them too close for a while. I used many of the beads to simply fill in the gaps left by the leaves.

When I was at Michael’s I also bought a few metallic rose jewelry pieces for an extra detail. I ended up using three different rose designs. I added each of these to the dress, again using hot glue. I think they worked well where the bunches of leaves came together. These matched the thorns quite well.

The final step was adding a couple fabric roses to the sides. I sewed and hot-glued three roses to each hip as the last detail. These were attached over where the zipper is and I ended up placing two on one side of the zipper and one on the other side. When the dress was on they fit together perfectly!

And suddenly the dress was done!

The next big thing I needed to tackle was the hair. First, Kris had planned on making a crown for me but instead she just happened to stumble upon a version of Margaery’s crown at a local Halloween shop! What were the chances?!? It was perfect. I had a set of hair extensions from the last time I was Margaery and I bought another set just for this. So much fake hair! I always choose not to use a wig, so hair extensions are the way to go. I also bought two bun inserts to get the height I needed.

I first center parted my hair and curled it, then loosely followed this youtube tutorial. Mainly I used this to get the bun insert attached to the top of my head and initially cover it with some of my own hair and a few sets of extensions. Next I needed help. This is where Kris came in. She likes to say she can’t do hair, but this was more of a craft project so she jumped right in. Essentially, what came next is attaching the large pieces of hair extensions to the back of my head and using the smaller sets to cover the large bump on the top of my head. Finally she used the pieces of hair on the side of my head and a ton of hairspray to bring this hair straight up to cover anything else that shouldn’t be showing. Then there was a lot more hairspray, pinning my bangs back and attaching my crown to the front. And ta-da! I had Margaery Tyrell hair! Surprisingly it wasn’t painful at all; all of the pins and the majority of the extensions were attached to the bun insert and not my actual head. It was a bit heavier than my normal hair though and that took a little getting used to. So much hair. So much fake hair.

For shoes I just wore a pair of white sandals I previously owned. I know Margaery wears white boots during her wedding but I decided sandals would be more comfortable to walk around in all day.

I debated buying Margaery’s necklace online but then decided I was too cheap and instead found an alternative version at Claire’s. I couldn’t exactly carry a purse with this outfit so I reused the basket I like to carry around when I’m a Disney princess, because baskets are cute and convenient.

And just like that Margaery was complete and ready for Edmonton Expo! The best part was naturally all of the pictures we took. This is only a preview, I promise more will be posted in the upcoming weeks.

Funnily enough, you may remember we met a Joffrey cosplayer at Calgary Expo last spring. I never expressed my desire to make this dress to him and separately we both started working on our Purple Wedding attire. If you can find a Joffrey, I guarantee the pictures will be excellent.

Getting ready that Saturday was a process, but overall things went more smoothly than I thought they would. The dress held together perfectly and I only lost one rose. There are only a few little things I need to do to prepare the dress for its next outing. Mostly some of the roses along the edge of the skirt need to be cleaned. I also want to see if I can manufacture a clip or a hook to the back so I can hook the skirt up to make it easier for me to move in busy convention halls. I got pretty good at throwing the skirt over my arm when there were a lot of people around. Overall, I think it was all quite successful ?￰ﾟﾘﾊ

I hope you find this tutorial useful. I guarantee it’s easier than you think it’ll be – it just takes some time. Let me know in the comments if you have any additional questions about this Margaery Tyrell cosplay! And stay tuned, I wasn’t the only one to get a new Game of Thrones dress…

Hi internet friends! This weekend the My Fangirl Life team is heading to another Con. It’s Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo… Yay! Unlike Calgary Expo, back in April, this one is in our hometown. We don’t have to pack up our costumes (into a million bags!) and road-trip. Plus we’re able to get ready in the comfort of our own homes – definitely more convenient!

We’re excited to take in the sites and sounds of Expo life again, as well as adventure back into the world of cosplay. I’ve been busy sewing and we’re debuting some new costumes this weekend!

You can follow our weekend shenanigans on our twitter account: @Fangirls_Online and Facebook page: My Fangirl Life Blog. If you already follow us, you’ll have had a sneak peek with some behind-the-scenes photos already.

Here’s our cosplay line-up for the weekend:

We’ll be posting photos, how tos & other fun stuff to go with each of these outfits once we’ve recovered from our busy weekend and have time to edit photos/write posts/etc! Also check back for some of our highlights of the Expo. We’re all very excited!

If you’re out at Edmonton Expo and you see us, come say hi and let us know you saw our post – we’d love to meet our readers! For everyone else, check us out on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates, and we’ll be sure to post all about it when we’re back.

Hope to see some of you!
– Justine Alyssa

We’re off to Edmonton Expo! was last modified: September 24th, 2015 by Justine Alyssa

Welcome to the third instalment of my Game of Thrones Cosplay How-To posts! If this is your first time here and you’re interested in one of the other ladies of Westeros, I’ve already brought you tutorial guides for Margaery Tyrell and Sansa Stark.

KG is the newest member of our cosplay team and after being George R.R. Martin at the last Expo, she was ready to have her own Game of Thrones dress. Today I’ll show you how we turned her into Daenerys Targaryen!

The first step was deciding which Dany she was going to be. You see a lot of people cosplaying Dothraki Dany or Qarth Dany but those dresses are so two to four seasons ago. We wanted something more recent. Eventually we decided on this one:

The next step was finding the perfect pattern. I used McCall’s 6941 and didn’t make many adjustments.

Then it was on to fabric shopping and boy did we luck out! There was the most perfectly pleated fabric in the discount section of our local fabric store. What are the chances?!? KG had almost resigned herself to the fact that she’d be ironing pleats into the skirt before every Expo (sounds like the worst if you ask me). We were just as lucky with the blue fabric. It was wonderfully textured and also from the discount section.

I’ve now made multiple skirts with this pattern and I love it. It’s a simple but really full skirt that works great for many occasions. Working with the pleats was a little difficult. They liked to stretch more than I liked. This made me have to take it in a lot to make it fit around the waist! I also had to do a lot of hemming as KG is a little shorter than Kris and I.Next was the bodice and, luckily, this turned out easier than I thought it would. I cut out all the pieces and just started following the steps. Easy as pie. The one tricky part was finishing the edges along the curves.

I had KG try it on once at this stage and it was a little too snug – I was worried. To try and fix this I took out some of the main seams a little. It didn’t give much more room but it was the best I could do without adding more fabric. I then added a zipper and some snaps to the back. At this stage the bodice was complete… except for the two pieces that cross in the front.

The cross was the most difficult part. I added a layer of interfacing to each piece to give them a bit more shape. Attaching them only at the top of the dress, I waited for KG to try it on before I figured out where to secure them at the bottom.

Then it was the big try on and, surprisingly, it fit!! I couldn’t believe it; I was quite shocked. I didn’t need to take it out anymore or make any other adjustments. I used this opportunity to pin the crossed pieces where they belong. As I mentioned, KG is a little shorter than I had made the top for. I had to hem the front and back flaps as well as bring up the sides to fit more on her hips. It was quite easy to make these simple alterations.

The final sewing was making sure all the edges were finished and attaching the crossed pieces. I used some hot glue to secure these front pieces to each other and the dress. I still want to make some adjustments to this part, even now. The pieces tend to lift up and shift a little, especially when she has the belt on. I know I can fix this before she wears it next.

KG made her belt with a ton of hot glue, a pattern and some paint. She’s considering remaking the belt and promises to blog about the process if she does.

The final step was a hair test. First, we curled all of her hair. Loose ringlets was the closest we could get to the Dany look. Then it was braid time. KG has short bangs. Dany doesn’t. Getting rid of those was the most difficult part. I did 4 braids using the front of her hair. It was tricky to get the bangs out of the way, but a little hairspray did the trick. The main thing I learned here was to pull the braids down the side of her head as opposed to pulling them straight back. Finally on the third time of creating this Dany hair I think I have mastered braid placement… it’s just trial and error till you get it right. The final step was pulling the 4 braids back into a little pony tail. In creating this look I simply looked at the various styles Dany has had in recent seasons… as long as it’s blonde and there are some braids it’s totally recognizable!

The look was completed with some brown sandals, a nice basket and of course, Drogon. KG bought the stuffed animal and now carries it around with her often. It even made a trip to the bar with us once!

The dress is instantly recognizable, but still pretty basic right now. KG and I have discussed adding some more detailing to the bodice… perhaps some additional stitching or adding beads or scales. It’s still to be determined. I’ve seen some amazing work done on this dress by other cosplayers and we’ll see if we can compare. If we make some changes I’ll be sure to keep everyone posted here. I love getting help, ideas and tutorials from other cosplayers and I hope others feel the same coming here! I hope you find this useful in creating your own Daenerys Targaryen.
Let me know in the comments if you have any additional questions!

– Justine Alyssa

My Fangirl Life Cosplay: Daenerys Targaryen Tutorial was last modified: June 4th, 2015 by Justine Alyssa

The My Fangirl Life team was away this past weekend attending the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo that takes place a 3 hour drive south of home for us. It was an absolute blast and we had so many random adventures. And of course, we attended in cosplay – more to be shared about that in future posts.

Those of you who have been following us for awhile may know that I am a relatively new cosplayer. In fact, this weekend was the first time I actually wore planned cosplay outfits (my previous ones included Nick Fury and George R. R. Martin). I’ll write some more about experiencing my first planned cosplay weekend in the weeks to come, but for today I’d like to share with you my personal favourite moments of Calgary Expo, in no particular order.

1) Finding someone dressed as Joffrey and doing a photo shoot in our Game of Thrones outfits. Why would anyone cosplay Joffrey? He’s the worst.

2) Seeing Neil Patrick Harris’s face in real life.

3) The joy of young girls as we greeted them with “Hello, your majesties” while dressed as Disney princesses.

4) Direct quote from Jason Momoa (aka Khal Drogo) during his panel: “The series wouldn’t have lasted if I lived. I cross the sea, kill everyone, put her ass on the throne. Bob’s your uncle”.

5) Fawning over Gaston as Disney Princesses.

6) Bringing my dragon, Drogon, out with us to the bar on Game of Thrones day, because obviously Dany wouldn’t leave him behind.

8) Staring at the back of Lana Parrilla’s head at the bar. We also saw her in side profile. So darn beautiful.

7) How impressed people were by our business cards. Fancy, right?

If you attended, what did you think? Let us know in the comments!

Cheers,

KG

My Favourite Moments of Calgary Expo was last modified: April 20th, 2015 by Kristin Glass

As mentioned in my previous post My Fangirl Life Cosplay: Sansa Stark I recently decided I wanted a Game of Thrones dress. But cosplay is more fun in pairs so naturally, I made one for Kris as well. I already outlined that process in the post above. Today I’ll discuss how I turned myself into Margaery Tyrell. This tutorial is slightly more complicated than the Sansa Stark one as it was a large trial and error process to make this dress.

First, I had to decide on which version of Margaery I wanted to be. This wasn’t too difficult as I knew pretty much from day one I wanted this one:

The first step was fabric shopping. We started looking for something for the bodice. This proved rather difficult, until we tried the upholstery area. It was here we found a number of blue fabrics with gold accents. I knew I was never going to find something exact with the flower pattern but I was very happy with what we found. Next we found a gorgeous blue material for the skirt and a velvet blue for the sleeves.

For the skirt I used a McCalls pattern I already had: M6941. It was a simple full circle skirt that fell to the floor. At this point I did not add a zipper to the side as I was unsure of how I’d be getting into the dress once the bodice was attached.

For the bodice I was unsure how to begin and it was a large trial and error process. I did purchase a pattern from etsy. I won’t link to the site as I wasn’t happy with it and made a ton of adjustments. I took the pattern they provided and then using some cheap fabric I completely remade the bodice. Many adjustments and versions using this cheap fabric were made. It was difficult to get a symmetrical v-shape in the front and get the right dimensions across the back to create the halter look while not cutting into the fabric on the sides of the bodice. All of Margaery’s dresses are quite revealing. Being rather large chested I did use this to my advantage. However, my dress is far more modest than a number of Margaery cosplay dresses you see online.

When I finally felt confident in the pattern I had created I made a version using the expensive upholstery fabric. I then slowly began sewing it together. This was a slow process as everything was pinned tight and had to be tried on after every stage.

It was here I had to decide how I was getting into the dress. I decided to put in a zipper along one side, from the top of the bodice down into the skirt. To do this I first pinned the skirt to the bodice, at this point I did not have them sewn together. I rather traumatically cut into the side of the bodice and sewed in the zipper, attaching the bodice and skirt. This now allowed me to finish sewing the bodice as I could now make it as tight as I wanted and still be able to try it on. When I was done with the basic sewing of the bodice I fully attached the skirt throughout.

Next I finished all of the edges along the bodice, I also secured some of the seams with some fabric glue as the fabric I used frayed a little. I sewed a large snap at the top to secure the bodice together. I then used some glue here to secure the snap, no wanting this snap to come undone while wearing! I also also added a couple darts to the front to make things fit just the way I wanted.

The sleeves were also rather difficult and I created my own pattern. Again, using some cheap fabric I created multiple versions of the sleeves until I got it right. The difficult part is the sleeves line up along the top of the bodice and then create a nice curve down to connect just under the armpit. I also wanted the sleeves tight which involved a lot of pinning and trying it on. When I was happy with the pattern I cut out 4 copies using the velvet fabric I had bought earlier. I then sewed the sleeves together like a pillow and inserted some iron-on interfacing into the middle. This gave them some structure. And then the sleeves were sewn to the dress. They were a little tall coming off my shoulders so I took them down a little. With the sleeves attached the dress became immensely tighter and greatly improved my posture. My shoulders had to remain pulled back! It probably helped with the overall Margaery look!

The final part of the dress was hemming the length and sewing on a couple of ribbon strips along the seam between bodice and skirt to hold the belt in place.

Kris was in charge of making the rose belt. It fell apart a few times throughout the day and the paint did rub slightly. She will be sure to blog the process of how she remakes both the Margaery and Sansa belts once she remakes them.

I have decently long hair but to get the full Margaery look I invested in a set of hair extensions. I had never bought hair extensions before and was a little nervous but they turned out perfectly. In looking for extensions I took to ebay. There are a large variety available there, of all different qualities. The ones I bought are definitely on the cheaper side! They clipped in easily and gave me the signature Margaery curls. I’ve now used these extensions twice and already there are a couple pieces in knots. It’s likely I’ll buy some more before I become Margaery again.

In creating this look I first curled my hair. I parted it down the middle and curled the strands near my face away. I have long side bangs and had to work a little to keep them away from my face. Next I put in the hair extensions and pulled the top layer of hair back in a couple twists. I secured them with an elastic and then, following a tutorial I saw on youtube, I flipped the pony tail up to add some dynamic.

The cosplay was completed with a pair of simple sandals.

I hope you find this useful and you create your own Margaery Tyrell.
Let me know in the comments if you have any additional questions.

– Justine Alyssa

My Fangirl Life Cosplay: Margaery Tyrell Tutorial was last modified: January 4th, 2015 by Justine Alyssa

I don’t fully remember why, but last spring I decided I wanted a Game of Thrones dress, more specifically a Margaery Tyrell dress. But if I wanted a Game of Thrones dress, that meant I needed to sew two. I only cosplay things where Kris and I can be a pair….cosplay is more fun in groups.

Going in I had very minimal sewing experience but had already challenged myself with a couple of cosplay projects. All I needed was a pattern, the right fabric and the internet. In creating my various cosplays I always take to the internet first. This is one of my favourite things about cosplay; everyone is so eager to help each other out…Which is exactly why I’m going to outline exactly how I made these dresses. I hope it inspires others to do the same!

In deciding on which Sansa to cosplay, Kris went with young and innocent Sansa from Season 1 and 2. The beautiful pink dress she wears in her early days at King’s Landing.

Next I checked out the available patterns. I absolutely love how McCalls and Simplicity, amongst others, have embraced the cosplay/costume culture and created patterns for many fandom-themed dresses. The pattern I used was definitely designed after Cersei’s dresses, but with a couple minor adjustments I knew it would work for Sansa. I used McCall’s pattern M6940 and made dress A.

Kris is the master of finding the perfect fabric. We set off to our local fabric store and bought metres upon metres of pink fabric. One note, the sleeves are lined in the pattern. If you don’t plan on making them so you can get at least a metre less of fabric. I didn’t lined them and still have excess fabric!

We also picked up some lace. If you notice the side of her skirt is a different fabric. To achieve this effect we decided to overlay the lace on the pink fabric.

Next I simply followed the steps. At this stage, the only change I made to the pattern was making the skirt a bit more flared; you’ll notice her skirt is a bit bigger than the pattern I had. The only small issue with this adjustment was making sure you didn’t begin making the skirt wider until below the waist.

In making this dress I was amazed at how easy it actually was; the front and back are each one long piece! The sides included one additional step: I overlayed the lace on the skirt pieces. With just some easy sewing I had the base of the dress.

Next came the sleeves. Another adjustment was made to the pattern here. Sansa’s sleeves are more triangular and pointed than the pattern. To achieve this I simply took the rectangular sleeve pattern and cut a diagonal line from bottom to opening. This created the big sleeve and wide effect we wanted. Again, attaching the sleeves was easier than expected. The pattern is your best friend. Just follow it!

This was about as far as I could go without Kris present. On her first fitting we adjusted the neckline. Sansa at this age is quite young and modest, however this pink dress is rather low cut. We took the neckline down slightly, making it just a little sexier.

Next I lined the bodice of the dress. The pattern recommends so. I likely would not have done this step except the pink fabric we used was slightly see through.The hardest part of the dress is the ties. There are no clasps or zippers, just a number of ties. I originally tried to complete this step without Kris present but that did not work. With her there I could pin the ties in the correct place while she was wearing it. We chose to use two ties instead of the three in the pattern. It was difficult to put them in the same place as Sansa, as at this point she is quite flat chested. We are not. Therefore in making our dress we placed the ties just below the chest. Additionally, there is a hidden tie inside holding it all together. I think this is the most important tie to keep tight. With the ties sewed all that was left was hemming the length and adding a couple stitches to the sleeves to bunch them on top. These are noticeable on Sansa’s dress, but more importantly, it allowed Kris to use her hands.

And with that the dress was done!!

But there were still a couple things needed to complete the Sansa look. First, a pair of simple sandals is appropriate footwear for King’s Landing. Second, Sansa’s dragonfly necklace can be purchased from a number of etsy shops.

To get Sansa’s signature hair we found a foam hair donut and cut it to form a long roll. Then I took to youtube. There are a surprising number of Game of Thrones inspired videos here. For inspiration I used Sansa Stark ‘Southern Style’. Again, I made some little changes to get the look we were going for. I recommend lots and lots of hairspray and even more bobby pins. That roll on the top is pretty loose. I’ve seen videos where people use hair extensions or extra hair pieces to get this look. I’m lucky that Kris already has long red hair.

The final piece to complete Sansa is her gold belt. Kris made this one out of foam, gold paint, a hand made stencil and some chain. Unfortunately the belt ripped in a few places and a new one will be made for our next cosplay adventure. Kris will be sure to blog the process (including a how to on Margaery’s rose belt)!

And with that, Sansa Stark was complete and it was time to take some photos! Check out all of our Game of Thrones cosplay photos here!

I hope you find this useful and you create your own Sansa Stark.
Let me know in the comments if you have any additional questions.

– Justine Alyssa

My Fangirl Life Cosplay: Sansa Stark Tutorial was last modified: December 8th, 2014 by Justine Alyssa

2 years agoby myfangirllifeblogOn the blog today: if you're into outer space , lasers ⚡️, and live music, head over to our most recent post for info about an awesome Edmonton concert that KG is planning with @lettersfrompluto ! {link in bio} Get your tickets today! #yeg#yeggeek#yegevents